Journey to the Centre of the Earth

by Jules Verne

  For my part I cannot agree with his theory of gradual cooling: in spite of what I have seen, I still believe, and always shall believe, in the central fire. But I admit that certain circumstances, as yet imperfectly understood, may modify this law under the influence of natural phenomena.

  While these questions were being fiercely debated, my uncle suffered a real sorrow. Hans, in spite of his entreaties, left Hamburg; the man to whom we owed everything would not allow us to pay our debt in hospitality. He was afflicted with home-sickness.

  ‘Färval,’ he said one day, and with that simple word he left for Reykjavik, where he arrived safely.

  We were deeply attached to our worthy eider-hunter; though far away, he will never be forgotten by those whose lives he saved, and I certainly intend to see him again before I die.

  In conclusion, I should add that this Journey to the Centre of the Earth created a tremendous sensation all over the world. It was translated into every other language; and the leading newspapers competed with one another in order to publish the most interesting passages, which were commented on, discussed, attacked, and defended with equal conviction on the part of believers and sceptics. My uncle had the rare privilege of enjoying in his lifetime the fame he had deservedly won, and even received an offer from Mr Barnum to ‘exhibit’ him in the United States.

  But a nagging worry, I might almost say a torment, was mingled with all this glory. One aspect of the journey – the behaviour of the compass – remained a mystery, and for a scientist an unexplained phenomenon is a torture for the mind. Fortunately Providence was to make my uncle completely happy.

  One day, while arranging a collection of minerals in his study, I noticed the famous compass and had a look at it.

  It had been there for six months in its corner, never suspecting how much worry it was causing.

  Suddenly I gave a cry of surprise. The Professor came running into the room.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ he asked.

  ‘The compass!’

  ‘Well?’

  ‘Well, the needle points south instead of north!’

  ‘What’s that you say?’

  ‘Look, the poles are reversed.’

  ‘Reversed!’

  My uncle looked, compared the compass with another, and then gave a leap of joy which shook the whole house.

  Light dawned at the same time in his mind and mine.

  ‘So,’ he exclaimed, as soon as he was able to speak again, ‘after our arrival at Cape Saknussemm the needle of this confounded compass pointed south instead of north?’

  ‘Obviously.’

  ‘Then that explains our mistake. But what phenomenon could have caused this reversal of the poles?’

  ‘It’s all very simple.’

  ‘Explain yourself, my boy.’

  ‘During the storm on the Lidenbrock Sea, that fireball which magnetized all the iron on the raft simply reversed the poles of our compass!’

  ‘Ah!’ cried the Professor, bursting out laughing. ‘So it was a practical joke that electricity played on us!’

  From that day onward, my uncle was the happiest of scientists, and I the happiest of men; for my pretty Virlandaise, abdicating her position as ward, took her place in the Königstrasse house in the dual capacity of niece and wife. I need scarcely add that her uncle was the illustrious Professor Otto Lidenbrock, corresponding member of all the scientific, geographical, and mineralogical societies in the world.

  Journey to the Centre of the Earth

  With Puffin Classics, the adventure isn’t

  over when you reach the final page.

  Want to discover more about your favourite

  characters, their creators and their worlds?

  Read on …

  Contents

  AUTHOR FILE

  WHO’S WHO IN JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH

  SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT…

  SOME THINGS TO DO…

  FIRE PLANET!

  ICELAND

  CRACK THE CODE!

  Author File

  NAME: Jules Gabriel Verne

  BORN: 8 February 1828 in Nantes, France

  DIED: 24 March 1905 at his home, 44 Boulevard Longueville (now Boulevard Jules-Verne) in Amiens, France

  NATIONALITY: French (Journey to the Centre of the Earth was originally written in French)

  LIVED: in France

  MARRIED: to Honorine de Viane, a widow, in 1857

  CHILDREN: one son, Michel, and two step-daughters, Suzanne and Valentine

  What was he like?

  Jules was a man with an extraordinary imagination who never gave up his dream of being a writer. His father was a lawyer who sent Jules to law school in Paris. Once Jules had graduated, though, he told his father he didn’t want to carry on the family business. He was going to be a writer.

  Ten long, hard years followed. He wrote plays, poems and short stories. Although some were published or performed, none were successful, and Jules had to work as a stockbroker to support his family. It wasn’t until he was thirty-four that the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel accepted Jules’ novel Five Weeks in a Balloon. It became an instant success.

  Where did he grow up?

  In Nantes, France, a port on the river Loire. Jules grew up surrounded by great ships coming home from or embarking for faraway places. Seeing these ships might be what made him interested in stories of travel and adventure.

  What did he do apart from writing books?

  Jules loved to sail his boats (the Saint-Michel I, II and III) around Europe. Unfortunately, there were also family problems to contend with. His son Michel was a rebellious teenager, while his mentally unstable nephew Gaston tried to murder Jules in 1886. Fortunately, one of his bullets missed and the other only hit Jules in the leg.

  What did people think of Journey to the Centre of the Earth when it was first published in 1864?

  Journey to the Centre of the Earth was part of Jules’ Les Voyages Extraordinaires (Extraordinary Voyages) series of books. They combined up-to-date science with thrilling plots. In those days no one had seen anything quite like them before, and they sold like hotcakes.

  Where did he get the idea for Journey to the Centre of the Earth?

  Jules was not a scientist or an explorer, and he got his ideas through reading lots of newspapers, magazines and books. Journey to the Centre of the Earth would have been modern science to Jules’ first readers. Today, of course, we know that much of the science in it is wrong.

  What other books did he write?

  He wrote over fifty novels, including the famous books Around the World in Eighty Days and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Jules also adapted his novels for the stage and published a bestseller (the lost manuscript Paris in the Twentieth Century) nearly ninety years after his death.

  Who’s Who In Journey to the Centre of the Earth

  Axel Lidenbrock – the teenage narrator of Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Dragged along on the expedition by his uncle, Axel is at first a reluctant explorer.

  Professor Otto Lidenbrock – Axel’s uncle and guardian, Professor Lidenbrock is a brilliant but eccentric scientist, often laughed at by his students. The fifty-year-old Professor is also impatient, quick to anger and can be a tyrant to his family. Only when Axel’s life is in danger do the Professor’s true feelings for him show.

  Hans Bjelke – an Icelander whom the Professor engages as a guide. A man of few words, Hans is brave, strong and calm in the face of danger. He saves the day more than once, and in some ways is the true hero of the story.

  Gräuben – the Professor’s seventeen-year-old goddaughter and Axel’s fiancée, Gräuben is left behind in Hamburg. Because she comes from a part of Estonia called Virland, Axel often calls her ‘my Virlandaise’.

  Martha – the Professor’s elderly housekeeper.

  Arne Saknussemm – long-dead Icelandic alchemist, and writer of the encrypted message that sends the Professor and Axel on their quest.

  Pro
fessor Thomson – museum curator in Copenhagen, who helps the Professor and Axel find a ship to Reykjavik.

  Captain Bjarne – Danish captain of the ship that takes the Professor and Axel to Reykjavik.

  Baron Trampe, Mr Finsen, Mr Picturssen, Mr Fridriksson, Dr Hyaltalin – Icelanders whom the Professor and Axel meet on their journey.

  Humphry Davy – an English scientist the Professor supposedly knows. Humphry Davy was a real person, still famous today for scientific discoveries such as the elements potassium and sodium. The Professor’s description of Davy’s theory about what lies in the centre of the Earth is accurate (although in later life Davy changed his mind). However, Jules seems to have made a mistake in his dates. As the book is set in 1863, but the Professor claims to have met Davy in 1825, the Professor must have been only twelve or thirteen when they met!

  Some Things to Think About …

  How believable is the story? What makes it believable/unbelievable?

  Do you think Axel is brave or cowardly?

  What kind of skills do you think you’d need to be a successful explorer?

  What do you think of the relationship between the Professor and Axel? Is the Professor a good guardian to Axel?

  ‘Rhombohedral’. ‘Retinasphaltic’. ‘Gehlenite’. Many of the scientific words in Journey to the Centre of the Earth wouldn’t be understood by most grown-ups! Why do you think Jules uses so many difficult words? Does it make the book hard to understand?

  What did you think of the ending of the book? Do you think that Axel and the Professor’s expedition was a success or a failure?

  There are many novels in which the characters go on journeys, and on the way they learn not only about life but about themselves. What do you think the Professor and Axel learn about their inner-selves? Do they change by the end of their journey?

  You have been invited to take part on an intrepid journey to the centre of the Earth. What dangers do you face along the way? What type of plants and animals would you come across? Does the landscape change as you get nearer to the Earth’s core?

  Why do you think that Jules Verne is considered to be the ‘father of science fiction’?

  Some Things to Do …

  Make a cross-section map of the Professor and Axel’s journey.

  You are the set designer for a multimillion-dollar Hollywood movie of Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Choose a section of the story and draw detailed plans for the sets for it.

  You own an adventure travel agency, offering trips down the underground route that Axel and the Professor took! Make a poster advertising your trips.

  On their expedition, the Professor and Axel encounter many plants and animals thought to be extinct. Imagine you have become famous for (re)discovering a supposedly extinct animal. What animal could it be? How did you discover it? Write a newspaper article about your career and your discovery.

  Imagine that you are leading an expedition as adventurous as Axel and the Professor’s – to the North Pole, the Sahara Desert, into the Amazon jungle or even into outer space …

  Make a list of all the things you’ll need to take with you.

  Create a logbook of your expedition, including dates, measurements and important events.

  You’ve taken with you a miniature satellite-linked laptop that can send emails! Write an email to your best friend telling them how the expedition is going.

  There were many real explorers in the nineteenth century – for example, Henry Morton Stanley and David Livingstone. Do some exploration of your own into some of the explorers of the time to find out more about the discoveries they made.

  Read Jules Verne’s other adventures such as Around the World in Eighty Days and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. How do they compare to Journey to the Centre of the Earth?

  Fire Planet!

  Jules Verne researched his books carefully. Unfortunately, though, many of the theories scientists had in the 1800s about what was inside the Earth were wrong! Read on to find out what’s really at the centre of the Earth.

  If Axel and the Professor had really found a way to the centre of the Earth, there’s no way they could have survived. Our Earth, which seems such a comfortable place to inhabit on the surface, is in truth a fire planet. Wherever you stand on the globe, less than fifty miles below your feet lies an inferno of red-hot rock!

  This rock (known as the Earth’s mantle) can reach temperatures of over 3500°C (6330°F). It’s so hot that if the rock were at the surface, it would melt, or even boil and become a gas. The tremendous pressure of billions of tons of rock pressing down from above, though, keeps most of this red-hot rock in a solid state.

  Beneath the Earth’s mantle lies its core: the true centre of the Earth. Unlike the mantle, the core is made of metal (mostly iron). It’s even hotter than the mantle – scientists estimate it may be as hot as 5000–7000°C (9030–12,630°F)! The inner core is solid metal and the outer core is liquid metal.

  The metal at the Earth’s core is also a huge magnet. It’s this enormous hidden magnet at the centre of the Earth that makes compass needles swing to magnetic north.

  The only thing protecting us from the Earth’s red-hot interior is its crust: a thin but tough layer of solid basalt and granite rock. This layer can be as little as three miles thick under the oceans.

  If the crust of the Earth is breached, hot rock from the mantle escapes as molten lava, forming deadly volcanoes. Volcano eruptions are so powerful because they release part of the tremendous pressure in the mantle.

  The Professor tells Axel that the volcano Sneffels is extinct (and therefore safe) because it hasn’t erupted since 1219. If Axel had known that today scientists consider the lifecycle of volcanoes to be so long that any volcano which has erupted within human history is still active, it probably would have made him even more nervous!

  Thin though the crust of the Earth is, no one has ever succeeded in drilling through it. The deep-sea mission Chikyu Hakken (Japanese for ‘Earth Discovery’) is scheduled to have another go in 2007.

  Thanks to the science of seismology, we know a great deal about the inside of the Earth without ever having gone there. Seismologists have been able to work out what’s inside the Earth by studying the waves of energy sent downwards through our planet by earthquakes. By looking at how and when these waves reach sensitive measuring stations all around the globe, seismologists can work out what sorts of material they travelled through and build up a 3D picture of the inside of the Earth.

  Iceland

  Where and what is Iceland exactly?

  Iceland is a large island in the far north of the Atlantic Ocean. Today an independent country, in Jules Verne’s day Iceland was ruled by Denmark (this is probably why Axel and the Professor sail from Denmark).

  Is Iceland as it is described in Journey to the Centre of the Earth?

  Jules Verne drew on other travellers’ tales rather than his personal experience or Icelanders’ own accounts. The descriptions are, nevertheless, fairly accurate. Today, Iceland is a modern country and one of the richest in the world.

  Is the volcano the Professor and Axel climb down a real place?

  Yes, although there’s no evidence that Sneffels has a passage to the centre of the Earth in it! Sneffels is only one of Iceland’s many volcanoes, and much of Iceland is made from cooled, solidified lava.

  Why does Iceland have so many volcanoes?

  Because under Iceland lies a particularly hot and active part of the Earth’s red-hot mantle. One advantage of living in one of the most volcanically active spots on Earth is that it’s very cheap to heat your house in Iceland – Icelanders get over half their domestic power not from coal, oil or gas, but through tapping into free volcanic heat.

  Crack the Code!

  Jules Verne loved secret codes, and Arne Saknussemm’s message is just one of many encoded messages in his books. Here’s how to create some secret codes of your own:

  Make a simple code by writing out the alphabet and the numb
ers 0 to 9 on a piece of paper, then writing them out again in a different order underneath. This order can either follow a pattern (making the code easier to break, but also easier to remember), or be completely random. One famous code in history of this type was Julius Caesar’s, in the days of the Roman Empire. Caesar encoded important messages by substituting each letter with a letter three places further along in the alphabet.

  Use a boring-looking note or email to carry a secret message. Somewhere on your note, perhaps disguised as part of a date or address, write (for example) 5. This means that the person you’re sending the note to needs to read every fifth word to discover the hidden message. For example,

  James, I hope to meet you this coming Tuesday, at the big party for the opening of the museum garden. I’ll wait at the gate. It will start at nine and finish about twelve o’clock. Love, Sarah.

  would mean, ‘meet at the garden gate nine o’clock.’!

  If you and a friend both own the same edition of a dictionary (it must be exactly the same), it’s easy to use this as a secret codebook. Your code is the page and entry number of the word you want to encode. So, 145-8 would mean ‘Go to page 145 and count down to entry number 8.’

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